Chapter 52: Leon's Harvest

As everyone headed towards the main laboratory, Victor found Leon and quietly said, "I gathered some information. Out of the twenty-one synthesis directions, Azrak Nightshade has one successful case, which is Azrak Nightshade combined with Veridian Shardglass."

Leon had spent quite a bit of time with Victor and understood his thoughts. He nodded and said, "I don’t like Veridian Shardglass. I might check out the Azrak Nightshade and Greenvine laboratory. Of course, if Senior Victor is going to a place with a successful case, then how about the remaining Azrak Nightshade area being all mine?"

"No problem."

After Victor agreed, Leon didn’t say much more and followed the group, arriving at the location of the main laboratory.

Actually, after five days here, Leon had already grasped the general situation of this ancient experimental site. Although it was still operational, many functions had already ceased. Aside from some key areas still guarded, most of the security was no longer effective.

Despite the many areas that required various permissions, as long as one didn’t venture into places guarded by sentinels, there was no real danger.

Not only Leon but others had also realized this over the past few days. Besides the main laboratory, they had been to most places, and their ambitions had grown, as had their courage.

This time, after reaching the main laboratory, they quickly dispersed, heading towards the laboratories they had chosen.

Judging by their movements, they had completely forgotten that there were still sentinels in these places.

Leon, however, remained cautious. He advanced using the methods he had learned at school, moving through shadows or corners. Even though he was close to his destination, he was still extremely careful, never recklessly rushing.

Due to this caution, Leon was the last to arrive at the Twofold section of the main laboratory. Once there, Leon felt that taking his time was the right choice. He had already caught the scent of blood and spotted the corpses of some mechanical sentinels on the ground.

It was clear that the guards around the main laboratory had not entirely malfunctioned; they had simply been repositioned to defend some important areas.

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The place Leon was heading to, however, had almost no guards. In the eyes of the sentinels or the ancient experimental site's management, those failed laboratories didn’t contain anything worth taking, and stationing guards there would be a waste.

This realization relieved Leon a bit. The place he was looking for was one such failure, located in a corner of the first level, and the door of the laboratory was marked with the symbols of Azrak Nightshade and Greenvine.

Pushing open the laboratory door, a large cloud of dust rushed at Leon, covering him in white.

After the dust settled, Leon had a moment to observe the laboratory. Although the experiment had failed, the space was still quite large, about three hundred square meters.

Most of the space was occupied by various instruments, but at the center of the room stood a massive iron cabinet, taller than Leon.

As soon as Leon entered, he was drawn to the iron cabinet, feeling that what he was looking for was inside it.

However, Leon restrained his eagerness and began to search the laboratory. Soon, he found some documents on a laboratory bench, as well as an identification card.

Leon didn’t care whose card it was. He immediately recognized that the card had a relatively high level of access. After flipping through the nearby documents, he checked for any suspicious items or anything resembling a password.

After searching for a long time, Leon found no password, confirming that he had no way to explore the lower levels.

Feeling a bit helpless, Leon swiped the identification card to open the door of the massive iron cabinet. As he forced the door open, Leon was stunned.

Inside the four-square-meter, three-meter-tall iron cabinet, there were four layers, each containing four seeds, about fifty centimeters high.

All the seeds were encased in a crystal-like substance. Leon could clearly feel that the crystals emanated a strong, dark-element aura.

It seemed that these were the failed combinations of Azrak Nightshade and Greenvine, and the crystal exterior was likely formed from solidified liquid of the Azrak Nightshade, while the seeds inside were from Greenvine.

If that were the case, why did the documents say that the experiment had failed?

With that question in mind, Leon took out one of the seeds. To his surprise, as soon as he removed the seed from the cabinet, the dark-element crystal immediately began to melt. The seed inside turned from green to gray upon contact with air, losing all signs of life.

This left Leon speechless. He took out two more seeds, but the result was the same. As soon as the seed left the cabinet, the crystal would melt, and the seed would turn gray, losing all vitality.

Thinking quickly, Leon pulled out the various documents he had found earlier, especially the one titled "Vine Growth and Energy Transmission." Leon had a feeling that this document held the key to what he wanted to find.

Soon, Leon found the method for determining the state of the vine seeds in "Vine Growth and Energy Transmission." He wanted to confirm whether these seeds were already dead or if they still had life but lost it upon leaving the cabinet due to some unknown reason.

Through his research, Leon finally confirmed a few things. The combination of Azrak Nightshade and Greenvine had not succeeded because Greenvine required a significant amount of life force, while Azrak Nightshade, though not its opposite, would erode life force due to its dark-element nature.

Thus, the combination of these two attributes eventually rendered the Greenvine seeds useless, turning them into gray stones.

At the time, they were in the midst of a crucial battle, and the Greenvine seeds were a limited resource, with each one being vital. There was no need to waste them here, so the experiment was declared a failure.

After that, the remaining Greenvine seeds, which had undergone partial experiments, were left in the iron cabinet, forgotten for years until Leon opened the cabinet, bringing these things back to light.

Leon also sensed that these seeds had reached a semi-finished state after years of exposure to dark-element energy. If the seeds could be made to sprout before the balance was broken, the experiment could be considered a success.

The problem was that Leon couldn’t remove the seeds from the cabinet, nor could he seal them away. Leon had only one option: activate the seeds before taking them out of the cabinet and bring them back. At this moment, an idea suddenly struck him. He glanced at the iron cabinet and found the plumpest remaining seed.